More international tourists are travelling across English regions than ever before, with some areas showing double-digit growth in visitor numbers, according to data from VisitBritain. For the first nine months of 2015, visits to English regions outside London rose 7% to 11.7 million, setting a new record.

Northern England saw the strongest growth, with visits to the northeast increasing by 23% to 460,000 and arrivals to the northwest up 12% to 2.1m. Spending by international visitors across all regions climbed 4% to GBP5.8 billion (AUD$11bn).